A 65-year-old St. Louis man is missing after Amtrak personnel, mistaking his diabetic shock for drunk and disorderly behavior, kicked him off a train in the middle of a national forest, according to police in Williams, Ariz. …
Police said there is no train station or running water at the crossing, which is about two miles from the nearest road, at an elevation of about 8,000 feet. …
Williams police told CBS 5 that Amtrak has used the abandoned crossing as a drop-off site in the past. [Lt. Mike] Graham said that whether drunk or not, no one should be dropped off there.
“You don’t put anyone off in an area like that,” Graham said.
Amtrak said the company is looking into the matter.
(Hat tip: Becky.)
UPDATE: This article suggests that, perhaps unsurprisingly, the above report is a bit unfair to Amtrak, and there’s more to this story than meets the eye:
As far as Amtrak, officials tell me they followed the company policy and are not looking into this matter. Amtrak issued this statement late Thursday.
“Amtrak followed company policy Sunday night (6/24) when a passenger was escorted off Amtrak’s Southwest Chief train #3 in Williams Junction, AZ, at a regularly scheduled station stop with a station platform and roadway access. Amtrak would never leave a person alone in a remote location under any circumstances. In this case, the conductor and the passenger waited on the platform with the passenger’s luggage. Upon arrival of authorities, the passenger fled into nearby woods. The investigation is being handled by Williams PD.”
UPDATE: He’s been found.
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Categories: News, Arizona & the Phoenix Valley
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June 28th, 2007 at 9:45:28 pm
lol! Only a nationalized company would even think of doing something that stupid.
June 28th, 2007 at 9:55:22 pm
And the stupid thing is, when my train (the Empire Builder) was stranded on the tracks for 14 hours because we hit a boulder some nice person had placed in the middle of the tracks, they absolutely would NOT let anyone off the train, for any reason. Not even the elderly couple who lived a mile down the road. And we were in a town too. Maybe it’s just the Empire Builder.
June 28th, 2007 at 10:02:06 pm
Andrew-
I seem to remember for-profit companies throwing plenty of drunks off their trains back in the 1930s and 40s.
June 28th, 2007 at 10:10:35 pm
Andrew is just an knee jerk lunatic at times, pay him no mind unless he is actually making a valid point.
June 28th, 2007 at 10:33:10 pm
C-O-M-M-O-N C-A-R-R-I-E-R!
June 28th, 2007 at 11:06:49 pm
I TOLD you I was having a diabetic reaction!
June 29th, 2007 at 12:30:14 am
Right Andrew, cause completely private companies never do anything wrong. And of course as it turns out there was far more to the story then first came out, ah the blogosphere not waiting til it has all the information … at least Brendan corrected his post, wonder how many didn’t.